Finding solutions
The momentum of hospital care can make people feel as if they’re on a moving train and can’t jump off.
The rush of medical decisions “doesn’t allow time to deliberate or consider the patients’ overall health or what their goals and values might be,” said Jacqueline Kruser, MD, an instructor in pulmonary and critical care medicine and medical social sciences at the Northwestern University.
Many hospitals and health systems are developing “decision aids,” easy-to-understand written materials and videos to help patients make more informed medical decisions, giving them time to develop more realistic expectations.
After Kaiser Permanente Washington introduced the tools relating to joint replacement, the number of patients choosing to have hip replacement surgery fell 26%, while knee replacements declined 38%, according to a study in Health Affairs. (Kaiser Permanente is not affiliated with Kaiser Health News, which is an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation.)